15. Vinnie
15
VINNIE
When we decided to go on the trip together, I knew it would be fun. It was with Daddy—how could it not be? But I wasn’t expecting it to be a crossroads in our relationship, for it to be where everything changed. Where I became more than just his boy or his date.
Hearing about Mia had been important. At the time it made me want to cry and puke. The emotional turmoil of meeting her and then asking and hearing about her had been intense. I was very proud of myself for saying something despite all of that. With most people, I didn’t think I could’ve, but this was Daddy, and he made everything safe.
Past-me would have let it fester until it wedged between us, but by telling Daddy exactly how I was feeling, we were able to have a very honest conversation—one that ended with me hearing that he saw me as his future. And it really doesn’t get much better than that.
We walked up to the elevator to see an “Out of Order” sign. It was not a shock. The stupid thing had been a pain in the ass for a while now. But when you were tired, had luggage, and needed to pee, it was doubly awful.
“Great,” I grumbled.
“Don’t worry, Vinnie.” He kissed the top of my head. “I’ll take mine up, and then I’ll come get yours.”
“I can do it.” I didn’t want to and was grumpy, but that didn’t mean I needed Emory to do double the work.
“Let Daddy do it.” Something about the way he said it told me he wanted to do this for me, and I decided to make it up to him later, but graciously accept now.
I thanked him, leaned against the wall, and closed my eyes for a few minutes. It had been an exhausting trip—as wonderful as it was, what I really needed was a nap and cuddle and milk. I needed Daddy time, which given I’d just had a ton of it didn’t make logical sense, but what about love made sense?
A few minutes later, the front door opened, and the breeze hit me. When I opened my eyes, there was a kid standing there, holding a kitten. From first glance, he could’ve been away from his mom, but barely. I didn’t know a ton about kittens, but I knew that much from the time my cat had kittens growing up.
“Hey, is this your kitten?”
I shook my head. The kid was late elementary age, and given his backpack with attached lunchbox, was probably on his way home from school.
“Does his owner live here?”
“No, I don’t think so… maybe…” I realized quickly how little I knew most of my neighbors. “Where’d he come from?”
“He was in that box, right out there.” He pointed to the main doors.
I asked him to show me, and he walked outside. There was a copy-paper box pressed against the front of the building, and when I looked inside, the poor kitten had been there long enough to have made a mess. I looked all around the box but couldn’t find anything to indicate why they were there or which office the box had come from. Given it had been recycling day, there had probably been a ton of them at the curb, making that not much of a clue, anyway.
“He’s not mine,” I told the kid again.
“I can’t have cats. Dad’s allergic.” He looked down at the kitten.“Can you take care of him?”
Could I take care of him? Probably not, but I could call a shelter. One thing was for sure, I wasn’t going to put him back in that box again.
“Yeah, I got you.”
He handed me the kitten and ran into the apartment building next door, his backpack thumping against him as he ran.
“Hey, you. Let’s get inside.” The kitten snuggled right in.
When I reached the elevator, Daddy was already standing by my suitcase. “I was wondering where you went. I didn’t know it was to make new friends.” He eyed the kitten.
“Somebody left him abandoned out there in a copy-paper box.”
“Any directions, like free kitten or anything?”
I shook my head.
He came over and took the kitten from me. “Look at you. I think your name is Tippy. You keep calling him a him. Did you look to be sure?”
“I call all cats boys.” I shrugged.
He picked her up— her because he announced, “It’s a girl.”
“Tippy still works.” It had already grown on me. “We need to find her a home.”
The shelter was the rational choice, but I didn’t want to take a chance on her going to a cruel family or being put down because no one fell in love with her adorable little face. The second was probably not going to happen, but the first? That worried me.
“We could be her home.”
It took me a second to digest.
“We? Like she’s both of ours.”
“Yeah? What do you think?”
What I thought was—it was a huge step. And one I was beyond excited to take.
“Yeah. I think I’d like that a lot.” We were going to be kitten parents. She could go between apartments until we took the next step and moved in together. It wasn’t like we were far away from each other.
“Let’s get everything inside, and then we will go and make a store run.”
Who knew that kittens needed so many things? Well, maybe she didn’t need all the toys we bought her. But I knew from personal experience—you could never have too many toys.